Review

Saints Row (page 2 of 5)

By Vicious Sid
August 26, 2006 20:26 PM PST
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Saints Row is one of the best-looking Xbox 360 games to hit the market

Ghetto-Fab

Saints Row's seedy inner-city world is an illusion, but it's a convincing one. The game bombards players with clever, immersive audio and visual cues: parking meters gush quarters when smashed, pedestrians stoop to tie their shoelaces, and breaking newscasts report on your criminal mischief. In fact, Saints Row's digital world is so meticulously detailed that its only real peer in this regard is The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, a game that set soaring new standards for gaming immersion.

As far as raw graphics prowess goes, Saints Row is one of the most advanced Xbox 360 games available. Running at a native resolution of 720p, the game throws around high-end shader models, ragdoll physics, real-time reflections on cars, and plenty of other high-tech gobbledygook. What matters is that the environments and characters look razor sharp, draw distances are kept nice and long, and explosions produce dazzling geysers of sparks and debris. You'll still encounter brief snatches of slowdown from time to time, and sometimes enemies appear to pop out of thin air, but these issues are vastly improved over San Andreas.

Your first goal should be to buy an assault rifle and lots of ammo

The audio sparkles, too. Radio stations deliver an admirable array of tunes, mostly from lesser-known indie bands (listen for Local H's mid-90s pop hit Bound to the Floor aka "Copasetic"). Saints Row's sound effects are simply perfect, with meaty firing effects, booming explosions, and rumbling bass from passing cars. David Carradine (Kill Bill), Michael Clarke Duncan (The Green Mile), and Keith David (Requiem for a Dream) lend in note-perfect performances. One geeky detail we loved: David's crime lord insisted on calling us by the name "player."

The cinematics ain't bad at all -- just ask this guy

Blinged Out

Saints Row also deserves recognition for its well-developed character creation system, which is intricate enough to stand toe-to-toe with heavyweights like World of Warcraft and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Your options include multiple ethnicities (including Asian and Latino) and body types (scrawny to morbidly obese), plus minute facial details nose size, jaw size, and so forth.

What's more, you can also play dress-up by buying clothing, piercings, tattoos, and hair styles from shops around Stilwater. Heavily customizing your character will increase your Respect level and unlock new missions. And if you ever tire of your appearance, there's always the neighborhood plastic surgeon. It's a GTA fan's dream come true.